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Pokémon Trainer Red
Loremaster Perri's Note: While Red and his counterpart, Ash Ketchum, have been sufficiently differentiated over the years as to be able to believably coexist within the same continuity as separate individuals - albeit with a decade in between the starts of their respective Journeys - Blue and Gary Oak have not and cannot. While game-canon usually ''takes precedence over anime-canon in areas of conflict and contradiction, in ''this ''particular situation, Gary has seniority and ''he, therefore, is the canonical grandson of the former Pokémon Professor of the Kanto Region, Samuel Oak (Gary is also Kanto's current Professor, as an aside). As a natural consequence of this, the role of 'Blue', both in Red's personal life and within the overall narrative of the Hedgelore, must by necessity be filled by a different character, who is described in this article as being the grandchild of one of Oak's two elder brothers - specifically, the one who was formerly mayor of Pallet Town and an important figure in his own right. Various characters have been floated as potential "Blues", including Fire Red/Leaf Green's heroine, but until anything is settled in stone, their gender and name will be kept deliberately vague in the following text. Pokémon Trainer Red - known by this name and none other - is an internationally famous superstar Trainer and one of the most popular figures to ever grace the sport, renowned the world over for his skilful talent, dauntless bravery, and rugged good looks (by the way, he's single, ladies~). He first exploded into the public consciousness at the tender age of eleven, gaining a rapt and appreciative audience region-wide for single-handedly dismantling the original Team Rocket, and, as could only be expected of one who could pull off such a feat as that, he followed it up by winning 2007's Indigo Conference as a first-year Trainer, earning the right to proceed onwards through the Elite Four and to the Champion, in order to claim that year's crown for himself (which he did). And as if both of those accomplishments hadn't already been enough, in that very same year, Red was certified by the Pokémon League as having registered every pokémon native to Kanto within his Pokédex - in other words, he caught 'em all. And he did it all without ever once ''publically uttering a single word. Scarlet Allure: Or, What is it that Makes Red so Compelling? The League themselves could not have crafted a better narrative to frame a Trainer's Journey than the one that literally writes itself in the hearts and minds of those who follow it. From the very moment, over a decade ago, that Red took his first step into the tall grass and began his grand adventure, he had been engineering, consciously or otherwise, virtually every facet of his future success; his tool, than as now, the almost laughably bland persona he chooses to present before the world. Red's public image, it could be said, is the epitome of neutrality, taken to its most logical conclusion. He presents no personal opinions, except for paid product endorsements (even the rationale behind his motivations for tackling Team Rocket remain to this day a mystery); indeed, he presents very little personality at ''all, allowing every individual who engages with his travels through the media to draw whatever fine details they like atop the blank slate he leaves open for them. His vendetta with Team Rocket, for example, thus became fuelled, in the minds of his fans, by whatever one's own ''personal gripes with the organization was; likewise, too, his triumphs in Gyms and stadiums alike, which were a vicarious fantasy for an entire generation of young Trainers (and many older people, too). Red's successes naturally became his fans' successes, and with that sense of attachment and individual investment came a level of hero worship that few other famous faces could match. His various Regional Hero releases - of which he has received more than any other Trainer - consistently sell out worldwide, and the very act of him signing on to sponsor a brand causes its stocks to jump. Red's muteness, which is a deliberate affectation rather than the result of trauma or physical disability, is ''never ''dropped in public space, and even in private he will avoid speaking unless such is absolutely necessary, although there his lack of words tends to serve a different, more mind-gamish purpose. Likewise, he never engages in any sort of behaviors that would be considered culturally unacceptable, and, while he is no more beholden to the League than he is to anything or anyone else that he didn't sign a contract to promote, he is nevertheless held up by them as a paragon of talent - '''the' shining example of how anyone can be a Master, provided they've the gumption (and are willing to follow their every rule to the letter, of course). In short, Red is so successful because he is everybody and nobody at the same time. Each person who engages with his story treats their own perception as the 'true' Red - because to see Red as flawed is to see one's own faults reflected back, he ceased to be a fallible human in the eyes of the world, and instead has become a living legend, more myth than man. Other Trainers have become Champions for multiple years in a row, or earned more Badges, or caught more pokémon, or even thwarted more criminals, but none of these individuals have managed to engender anywhere near as much mystery or appeal amid the larger public sphere. His silence and inscrutability, amplified by his off-the-grid retreat to Mt Silver's peak after losing his Championship in 2008, have made him a particularly popular object of affection for dreamy teenage girls, who often project a 'badass' persona about him; depicting him in notebook doodles as a smouldering, black-haired hunk of a man with radiant red eyes. In spite of how far removed from Red's actual appearance such artistic liberties are, they are so enduringly popular because the idea ''of Red is more real to his fans than his physical personhood; the blank slate as always lending itself particularly well to such distortions. As an example of this power, a limited-edition Hero evoking this popular imagery of 'bad boy Red' sold out within ''minutes ''of pre-orders being listed online, and regularly sells for $500+ on the secondhand eBay market. Fact and Fiction: What do we ''Really ''Know About Red? Because so much of Red's persona is engineered rather than organic, even the bare facts of his life can't be stated with any certainty, as it's impossible to know what's ''true ''and what's as much a part of his persona as his bland muteness. Those who are in positions to know the actual man behind his League, fan, and advertiser-pleasing front reveal nothing, and instead, only help to push his publicly accepted narrative. Therefore, the best an outside observer can do is to make best guesses based on the available evidence, which are as follows: * The two strongest contenders for Red's true first name, each backed by their own circumstantial evidence clues, are 'Ash' - which would be the coincidental irony of the century, if it turned out to be true - and 'Jack'. Other possible contenders that have been bounced about over the years range from Japanese names such as 'Toru' or 'Hiro', assorted Western names like 'Karl' or 'Oscar', or something that isn't even a traditional name at all, such as 'Ninten'. However, it's assumed that there ''are so many conflicting theories in the first place in order to throw off the trail of those attempting to seek out the truth, and that even those names with the most convincing hints behind them can't be trusted. Unless one who knows it decides to state it, it's unlikely this mystery will ever be solved for sure. * It's a solid fact that Red is Kantonese, but his hometown is somewhat more nebulous. All available evidence points towards it being Pallet Town, on account of several different factors - primary among them his Gym order, and also his known childhood friendship/rivalry with "Blue," Indigo 2006's Champion and the grandchild of Pallet Town's former mayor, part of the prestigious Oak family. The continued closeness of the two over the years indicates that their relationship is genuine, rather than something adopted for the sake of a compelling narrative, although whether this means Red grew up ''in Pallet...who can say? The only ones who ''can, aren't talking. * His Starter pokémon was a pikachu - although whether the pikachu he travels with now is the same ''pikachu, no one knows. It's generally assumed it's not, however, as career Trainers replacing pokémon with better-bred, stronger versions of the same species as they journey onwards is the ''norm, not the exception. * As a child, he lived with his mother - whether there was ever a father involved in the picture, no one knows. Single-parent Trainers are a common narrative among celebrity Trainers, and this may just be part of a tale cooked up to amplify his allure. Then again, it may also be true - like most aspects about Red, it's difficult to be sure of anything. * His relationship with his pokémon seems on the surface to be as neutral as the rest of him, but there's evidence of some degree of affection there if one digs deeper into the media coverage of his Battles, that manages to slip through his flat persona. Never enough to really cause any upset to the League - there's an acceptable boundary for such, and Red never ''crosses it - but enough to indicate that his feelings towards his companions might be based in something deeper than a mere desire for victory. That said, he probably isn't above replacing pokémon for 'better' ones, or engaging in other of the more 'cruel' of the common Trainer practices - it's expected of the system and the culture that gave birth to such actions, after all, and Red is nothing if not an example of gaming the rules so thoroughly that his level of success is the only logical outcome. We Have Seen Red and He is Us "What an absolute loser, a REAL Trainer like Red would beat the (expletive) out of this guy. Who the hell sends Fire-types out against Water-types? (Expletive) hell, I'd feel bad for the people who bet money on someone this terminally stupid, except you'd have to be just as (expletive) stupid to do that." "red's such a badass he'd laugh these morons right off the field" "how many pkmn have u caught, loser? wish you could be as cool as Red huh?" "AT LEAST RED ACTUALLY EVOLVES HIS POKEMON YOU (expletive)" - Representive examples of the YouTube comments section for every clip of League footage ever uploaded As explained above, the allure of Red is that his deliberate lack of any publicly demonstrated personality traits or opinions, minus his sales pitches, makes him an ideal canvas upon which others can paint their own indulgent self-insert fantasies, living vicariously ''through him when, more often than not, their own Journeys inevitably go bust. Red benefits all the way to the bank many times over, of course, but what his fans ''get out of this relationship is something altogether different - a lens through which to engage with a world in which they were, for the most part, not cut out for themselves. Because Red is whoever his observers wish for him to be, he is, quite naturally, conflated into ''the ''Trainer his fans wish they could have been, the standard against all others must be measured to be considered a valid contribution to the sport at large. As he was a Trainer who found his own success in how ''well he was able to play by the League's own rules (false personas, narratives and all), Red's status as media darling and pop-culture hero, inadvertently or not (no one knows), only serves to reinforce the ruling narrative in the culture at large. Any Trainer, past or present, who steps outside the boundaries of acceptable behavior while competing on the circuit is inevitably compared negatively to the mythic man, furthering the already-extant culture of ostracization towards those who approaching Training with a different perspective. What Red personally thinks of his fellow Trainers, if he'd agree with the words and behaviors of some of his more...outspoken...fans, is unknown, although he always greets his challengers with a tip of the hat and a degree of (silent) respect. Like with everything else that isn't McDonald's, Coca-Cola, or another of his sponsors, he speaks neither for nor against, going where ever he will and reaping the benefits that well up in his wake. Category:Characters Category:Natives Category:Humans